World gourmet fast health food facility

ABSTRACT

A method for providing quality exotic foods or foods from a variety of countries at prices comparable to fast food restaurants where the restaurant includes a menu selection book used to pick a food item. The table area includes the ability to order the food. Payment for the food can be made from a self-pay station at the table or at a self-pay cashier station exiting the facility. The restaurant facility specializes in international gourmet foods representative of popular foods typically found in various countries around the world. The menu book includes informational data related to a food item being considered for selection including one of pictures of the food item, seasonings in the food item, history of the food item, ingredients within the food item, nutritional data and any combination thereof.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a fast food facility specializing in gourmetfoods from around the world.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Typical fast food restaurants have kitchens where whether the cookingprocess is visible or not from the customer, there is a strong foododor. This is due to deep frying kitchen equipment and a multitude ofovens. Further, wait persons are required, cashiers are required, cooksare required, refrigeration for uncooked food is needed, etc., and thevariety of foods available is limited to basic meats, seafood and pastameals, many of these fried foods.

In addition, the overhead of these facilities is considered high giventhat typical fast food restaurants such as Taco Bell™, Subway™,Denny's™, Steak & Shake™, Olive Gardens™, IHOP™, Burger King™,McDonald's™, and other similar eating facilities typically employ from 8to 35 employees.

All of these typical restaurants have limited variety of foods and havespecific themes, for example, an Olive Gardens restaurant is typicallyconsidered an Italian restaurant with pasta dishes.

What is needed is a new restaurant concept that minimizes equipment towarm food to reduce odors and provides for a health conscious food menuthat is representative of food choices from several countries in oneplace.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

That is, what is needed is a restaurant type of facility that could evenbe franchisable, that is going to sell good quality, well affordablehealth gourmet fast-food that is representative of foods from all overthe world.

Any family or person will be able to enjoy this new concept with manyadvantages for the following reasons: many different dishes fromdifferent countries will be offered; the dishes will be ready as fast asthe average fast food franchise time; the food will be very healthy andtasty and comparable to the same food served by an expensive restaurantspecializing in this type of food; the price will be comparable to anaverage fast food franchise; any taste can fit into the new concept; themarket will target all classes of people including race, culture andreligion; people will be able to frequently eat at a facility withoutgetting tired of the same food because of the variety of dishesavailable and also the internal ambient that will be able to changeconstantly including the smell of the place that will be able to befresh all the time with this new concept of a restaurant franchise orfacility; there will be no need for tips because the facility will nothave a waiter; the facility will always be clean and quiet because therewill be a different concept of kitchen with no mess and no noise andalso very few people; there will be no oil or fat smell impregnating theplace with this new concept of restaurant franchise, this concept couldbe fit in a very small place like a food court at the mall or anywhereelse in the countryside due to the simplicity, and low cost andmaintenance; this inventive concept would also be very adaptable forestablishment in other countries; this concept could even be set up at atemporary places very easily, like shows and confernces troughout theworld and also places with very little people like very small cities andvillas due to its low overhead and easy way to set up; and finally thisnew concept could become one of the largest restaurant franchise fastfood establishments in the world due to all the reasons listed above.Additionally, the number of health inspections could arguably bediminished. Expensive quality control could be eliminated or reduced,losses and waste could be minimized, extensive cleaning can be reduced,high insurance rates/premiums can be reduced, thousands can be saved inlicenses, specialized labor, intensive training and the normal highinvestment in kitchen equipment. Overhead cost can also be significantlyreduced.

An ideal facility is a facility with the same size as any other fastfood franchise, but much more optimized due to the size of the kitchenthat will be reduced at least at 60% of size and cost to build, with atleast the same income but with one third of the overhead cost, also asignificant reduced time to get licenses and permits to build. The idealfacility finds it much easier to find people to work due to thesimplicity of the job, it means that an entire business could begin muchfaster than any other in the same category with the advantage of nothaving problems with quality control and recruiting several employees.

It is within the scope of the invention that each facility will havedifferent offers and specials, trying to cater to the location, forexample, if the facility is located in a part of a town with mostlyHispanic people of Mexican heritage, then the facility will offer someof the most popular plates from Mexico that are generally enjoyed bypeople in Mexico. In addition to the Mexican food, other food from theU.S. and other countries will also be available for ordering from themenu.

Initially the source or supply of food will not be prepared on site butrather will come from local factories and other restaurants undercontract for supplying these foods. In the future, it is anticipatedthat should a franchise system be developed that the chain of facilitieswill have its own central production and distribution facility forsupplying and replenishing the facility with food dishes. The fooddishes will be supplied frozen to the facility in a disposable packageand all foods would meet regulatory and inspection requirements.

The way the customers will select the dishes is as follows. A book-likemenu will be made for all the offered dishes, including a picture of thedish, base seasoning, history, ingredients and nutritional data, withthe menu number assigned to the specific dish that is ordered at thetable on a unique order board located at each table. After the customerselects the specific dish, the customer is advised that his order isready for pick up and he can then pick up a tray with his order dishthereon.

Food selections that need to be warmed up before pick-up are warmed by astaff member. If it is necessary to warm up the dish again, this can bedone by a crew member working the floor. The smell in typicalrestaurants is caused by fat and smoke from deep fryers, and the fat andsmoke impregnated on floors and walls and other equipments such ashoods. In the present invention, any smell will be minimal and willinstead emit a smell that resembles more that found in conveniencestores where coffee brewing is smelled but in this case the smell mayinclude one associated with what is being warmed-up at the moment from aselection made by the customer.

The customer will be able to self-pay with a credit card at the table,or at a cashier station when picking up the food. This can be done withautomated computerized machines at the table and/or at the cashierstation similar to self-pay devices already implemented in grocerystores and other retail stores.

Examples of typical world gourmet dishes that may be available are:Brazil—feijoada, moqueca capichaba, bobo de camarao; Spain—paella,parrillada; India—chicken tikka masala, lamb pasanda; ArabCountries—kafta, enjadra; Japan—teriyaki shrimp, etc.; Italy—lasagna,veal parmesan, etc.; China—canton steak, peking duck, etc.; PuertoRico—mofongo, etc.; Cuba—pallomila steak, etc.; Colombia—tamales, etc.;among other countries. Other delicacies that could be served are foodsuch as rabbit, frog legs, liver, and other kinds of foods that offer adifferent taste and/or is rare.

Because of the nature of the restaurant concept herein, exotic foodswill be capable of being offered at a price comparable to those found infast food chains and will be served just as quickly as those foodsserved in such fast food chains.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a representative conceptual depiction of a fast food facilityaccording to the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a conceptual depiction of a menu selection device from which acustomer can view details of offered food items and then make aselection that is transmitted to the staff in the food preparation areaof the facility

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the invention, generally referred to as 10herein, is a method for providing quality exotic foods or foods 40 froma variety of countries at prices comparable to fast food restaurantscomprising providing a restaurant facility 12 specializing ininternational gourmet foods 40. The facility 12 has tables 14 and chairs16 for customers to sit and eat selected food items 40.

Means for selecting the food items 40 are provided. Preferably, this canbe in the form of a menu selection book 18. One conceptual example ofsuch a menu selection book 18 is depicted in FIG. 2, wherein the menuselection book 18 includes informational data related to a food itembeing considered for selection including one of pictures 18 a of thefood item, and textual data 18 b that may include seasonings in the fooditem, history of the food item, ingredients within the food item, andnutritional data and any combination of said informational data. Thefood items 40 available for selection comprises a variety of ethnicfoods representative of popular foods typically found in variouscountries around the world.

Means for ordering the selected food item 40 at the table 14 is alsoprovided. One example of this are buttons 18c associated with each fooditem 40 that can be activated from the menu selection book 18 andadjacent to it. This order means would be in electronic communicationwith a menu order screen 30 displayed in the kitchen or food preparationarea of the facility 12.

Means for a staff member working at the facility 12 is provided towarm-up and/or cook the selected food item 40 when appropriate. This canbe in the form of a microwave and food warmer equipment area 26. Thefood items 40 are initially anticipated to be prepared at an independentsupply source 24 and stored at the facility 12 in a frozen state inrefrigeration equipment area 28.

Means for advising a customer that an ordered food item 40 is ready forpick-up is also provided. On example of such means may includeactivating the order button such that it flashes as shown by light waves18 d in FIG. 2 for one of the order buttons 18 c. Other methods can beused such as a speaker announcement that an order for a specific tableis ready.

Means for the customer to pay for the selected food item 40 consumed atthe facility 12 is also provided. One example of this is where a paymentcan be processed using an automated computerized machine 20 a located atthe table or at a self-pay cashier station 20 b before exiting thefacility 12.

The objective of the invention 10 is to have selected food items 40,which are ready for pick-up within a time span comparable to thatexperienced in typical fast food restaurants and prices for availablefood items are comparable to those prices typically found in said fastfood restaurants.

As mentioned above, the food items 40 are pre-processed at a food supplysource 24 independent of the facility 12. The facility 12, on the otherhand, includes minimal means 26 for warming and/or cooking selected fooditems 40 required to be warmed and/cooked. This allows for any odorsassociated with food preparation being significantly less than foododors typically associated with odors generally associated with typicalfast food restaurants.

It should be understood that the preceding is merely a detaileddescription of one or more embodiments of this invention and thatnumerous changes to the disclosed embodiments can be made in accordancewith the disclosure herein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention. The preceding description, therefore, is not meant tolimit the scope of the invention. Rather, the scope of the invention isto be determined only by the appended claims and their equivalents.

1. A method for providing quality exotic foods or foods from a varietyof countries at prices comparable to fast food restaurants comprising:providing a restaurant facility specializing in international gourmetfoods, said facility having tables and chairs for customers to sit andeat selected food items; providing means for selecting the food itemsfrom a menu selection book, wherein the menu selection book includesinformational data related to a food item being considered for selectionincluding one of pictures of the food item, seasonings in the food item,history of the food item, ingredients within the food item, nutritionaldata and any combination of said informational data, wherein the fooditems available for selection comprises a variety of ethnic foodsrepresentative of popular foods typically found in various countriesaround the world; providing means for ordering the selected food item atthe table; providing means for a staff member working at the facility towarm-up and/or cook the selected food item when appropriate; providingmeans for advising a customer that an ordered food item is ready forpick-up, wherein the customer can then pick up the selected food item;and providing means for the customer to pay for the selected food itemconsumed at the facility, wherein selected food items are ready forpick-up within a time span comparable to that experienced in typicalfast food restaurants and prices for available food items are comparableto those prices typically found in said fast food restaurants.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein payment can be processed using anautomated computerized machine located at the table or at a self-paycashier station before exiting the facility.
 3. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the food items available for selection arepre-processed at a food supply source independent of the facility. 4.The method according to claim 3, wherein where the food items arepre-processed at a food supply source independent of the facility, saidfacility includes minimal means for warming and/or cooking selected fooditems required to be warmed and/cooked, wherein any odors associatedwith food preparation are significantly less than food odors typicallyassociated with odors generally associated with typical fast foodrestaurants.